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A turbocharged 1.4-liter engine? C’mon, you’re kidding, right? Last week I learned that sometimes it’s not what you expect in a car but rather how it can surprise you that piques your interest. All the more so when the car is a compact budget sedan that clocks in with an unexpected level of roominess and style alongside a near-hybrid...




A turbocharged 1.4-liter engine? C’mon, you’re kidding, right? Last week I learned that sometimes it’s not what you expect in a car but rather how it can surprise you that piques your interest. All the more so when the car is a compact budget sedan that clocks in with an unexpected level of roominess and style alongside a near-hybrid 24/36 city/highway miles per gallon. Nor does it hurt matters that the entry-level MSRP is an affordable $16,995 while its near fully loaded sticker price weighs in at just a smidge under $22,000.

View full sizePhoto by James Gaffney/The Times-Picayune

Let’s see a show of hands from those who believe a vehicle such as this could only come from the minds of Honda or Toyota.



That’s what I thought.



Turns out turns out the automaker behind this four-door upstart is not based in Japan but rather the same Detroit company that once gave us the infamously disappointing (and outgoing) Cobalt. In the case of the Cruze, it seems Chevy finally got its act together and is taking it on the road.



You’re going to be hearing a lot about this car in the future.



And the automaker will meantime likely earn kudos for creating a four-passenger compact to finally give the Honda Civic and Toyota Corolla a run for their money.



No mishmosh

Before you look under the hood at its surprisingly perky (and did we mention turbocharged?) 1.4-liter four-cylinder powerplant, mated to a 6-speed automatic transmission, you’re going to want to sit inside, push the seat back and notice the equally surprisingly attention engineers paid to the cabin design as well as the quality materials selected. Instead of slopping the interior with a mishmosh of contrasting and (invariably) competing materials, Chevrolet understands what few carmakers that manufacture budget compact sedans do. Namely, if you keep the interior simple and use a dark and ideally monochromatic color palette — black is my favorite at least until they come up with a darker color — you can imbue even a modest-priced cabin with eye-pleasing elegance. So much so that this driver will pay you one of the highest compliments a consumer can about your car: namely, it looks and feels much more expensive than it really is.

View full sizePhoto by James Gaffney/The Times-Picayune

And this is where the Cruze succeeds, by using quality, monochromatic hard-plastic materials for the dash and inside door panels and veering only slightly with the addition of a single accent trim — plastic designed to look like burnished aluminum — tastefully applied around the center stack and shifter console plate.



Quality and style? Bravo! In fact, the Cruze interior reflects more taste and aesthetic restraint than at least one mega-buck luxury SUV whose name shall not be mentioned.

Does the Cruze cabin rely too much on hard-plastic materials? We could debate this until universes collide.



The only obvious peculiarity was the choice of heavy fabric as an accent on the inside door panels and on the front-passenger side dash. Because the color was black (in my test-drive vehicle), it wasn’t too distracting. But I wondered how difficult this material might be to clean, especially if the owner opted to get the fabric in another available color such as red. Um. Another nitpick is positioning the cupholders so close to the center-console parking brake that you can’t pick up your java keg without your hand constantly hitting the lever. Grrrr.



The seats in my test vehicle — an upper mid-trim LT2 — were upholstered in premium leather that featured, thankfully, low-key white accent stitching. But don’t despair

Tags: Chevrolet, is-featured

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CRUZE CONTROL: Chevy (finally!) gets serious with new budget compact sedan was originally published by New Orleans Auto Reviews: Chevrolet. Read the full story by clicking here.